J. Thompson: Fox's Wallace owes Palin an apology

By BEN SMITH

02/05/2010 04:33 PM EST

Jeri Thompson blasted Fox News host Chris Wallace on the Fred Thompson show today, calling his joke that he hoped Sarah Palin would sit on his lap during an interview with him "inappropriate" and "insipid," and demanding "action from Fox.

Thompson, the wife of the former senator and presidential candidate, told POLITICO's Jonathan Martin that the remark, to Fox Business's Don Imus, amounted to misogyny, and that she was tired of seeing it from "these dirty old men" on Fox, a network that she said ought to be respectful of conservative women.

"Sarah Palin is now part of the Fox family," Thompson said on the show. "She deserves you all watching her back -- and I do not mean it literally."

Wallace, she said, "owes her an apology."

"Not only is she a national figure – she deserves the respect that any other man would get in that situation," Thompson said, saying that her inbox was full of complaints from conservative women over the segment, and that the Palin group Team Sarah, as well as the anti-abortion Susan B. Anthony List, were dismayed by the segment.

"I hope that Fox does something about this, and they actually take this on, because it is not funny," Thompson said.